Witches and Werewolves and Watchers Oh my!
by The Great Wizard Qui Quae Quod
Summary: Xander tracks a demon to Port Angeles and gets badly injured. Buffy is about to go on a rampage. Can the Cullens convince the Scoobys that not all monsters are bad?
1. Chapter 1

**General Disclaimer of Everything:** I own nothing.

**Author's note:** I know, I know. I said I wouldn't post a story until it was finished. This one is finished, or almost. The end just needs some touching up. I think that since I was planning this story in parts anyways, I'll go ahead and post the first one. Let me know if you like it.

* * *

Xander had chased the demon all the way to Port Angelus, Washington. It was dark, smallish, and out of the way. The perfect place for a monster to go underground. However the place was very, very damp; which made it a poor choice for this particular demon. One garden variety demon would not normally be worth the road trip. After all, they were a dime a dozen back in Sunny D. However, this one had gotten ahold of the Amulet of Ra, an ancient Egyptian artifact that allowed it to walk in the sunlight, and gave it limited control over burning. Fire, Giles supposed. Which is exactly why Xander had forced it up coast to Washington State. It never stopped raining here. He chased the demon down the street and cornered it in a back alley. Xander hefted his battle-ax. The chase was over and the fight about to begin.

Alice stared into space, her eyes glazed over, seeing something that the rest of them couldn't. Jasper held her tenderly, supporting his wife, sending her waves of comfort. Edward frowned as Alice shared her vision with him. The Cullen Family had gathered in their living room. The image, large glass windows, polished wooden floors, pastel colors, a grand piano; did not match the atmosphere.

"Someone is coming." Alice told them, frightened. "Someone with the power to destroy us all." The Vampires shared worried glances.

"Who is coming?" Rosalie asked. "What is this power?"

"A Slayer," Edward replied. "A very angry Slayer. One that will set out to destroy every supernatural thing between here and California." He pulled Bella closer and she gave him a reassuring hug.

"Whatever happens, we can face it as a family." Bella told them. "We will survive this."

"A Slayer is death, Bella" Emmett told her. "She was born to kill Vampires. It is her calling. Her sacred duty, if you will." Bella shuddered at the thought. "We need to protect Renesme."

"We can leave her with the wolves when the time comes," Esme said, "She will be safe enough with them."

"Jacob should be happy with that" Edward growled.

"Is there any way to prevent this calamity?" Carlisle inquired.

"Yes," Alice replied, "But we must move quickly."

Xander lunged at the demon, slicing at it with his ax. He dodged out of the way when it tried to bite him. "Naughty, naughty" Xander taunted. The demon snarled at him. It tried to launch a fireball at him but the rain extinguished it before the fire left its claw.

"You can't use your fire out here," Xander pointed out helpfully. It snarled again. This time, when Xander closed in it changed tactics kicking at him and catching him in the ribs. Xander heard a sickening snap and was thrown against the wall. He landed in a heap. It leaped at him, racking him with its claws. They left burning trails down his shoulder and back. Another scar for the collection. The demon hissed in satisfaction.

"I don't just have fire. I control anything that burns," it said, "And what could burn more than acid, slowly eating through your skin?"

Xander gritted his teeth, pulled out a stake, and stabbed the arrogant demon in the heart. It crumbled into dust, leaving behind only the pendant. Xander grabbed the golden chain and stuffed it into his pocket; Giles would want a look at it. He staggered to his feet, and tore strips from his shirt; using them to form a makeshift bandage. He applied pressure to his shoulder until it stopped bleeding. Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do for his broken ribs. Then he started to limp out of the alleyway. He felt flushed, and feverish. Work of the acid, he supposed. He would have to find a hospital quickly. Suddenly, he sensed presences approaching from behind him. Four of them to be exact. Turning around slowly, Xander peered into the darkness. Fog had set in, making it even harder to see in the gloom.

"Show yourselves," He called, hoping that he sounded stronger than he felt. "I'm not in the mood for games tonight." Four slender figures materialized from the gloom. They walked casually down the street.

"Oh, good. We almost didn't make it." The short, pixy like girl spoke softly to her companions, but her voice echoed in the fog. A man was escorting her down the street, the perfect gentleman. There was no other word to describe the way that she clung to his arm. He was tall and lean. Xander noted the heavy scars on his arms, neck, and jaw. This one had been in fights.

"Hello there!" He called. His voice held a slight southern twang. "Are you alright?" The other man was a young giant. His frame was large and broad, every inch of it muscle. The woman with him was beautiful. Tall and blond, with all the right curves. She wore delicate pastel colors, and strongly reminded him of Cordelia.

"Now is not the time." Xander muttered. He leaned heavily on his ax, trying to stand straighter. "I'm fine." He replied. "I was just…" his mind whirred, trying to come up with a plausible reason to be limping around a back alley with a wooden stake and a battle ax at so late an hour. Instead he stumbled, catching himself on the wall behind him. The four closed in around him.

Then he caught his mistake. It was not just the fog that made them look pale. Their yellow eyes were more than a trick of the light. Their flawless grace and beauty were real, not a product of the imagination.

"Vampires." Xander cursed softly. He tried to pull his battle ax into a defensive position, tearing his wounds further open in the process. He was too weak from blood loss to hold the ax for very long, however, and the ax head took a dive towards his feet. Xander gave it up as useless, and dropped the ax. He pulled out his stake once more, feeling that it was a highly inadequate weapon against four fast, strong, blood suckers. The blood running down his arm made the stake slippery, and soon, he had dropped that as well. It rolled away, into the darkness. The Vampires watched silently, sharing incredulous looks. Xander cursed some more, regarding the useless ax at his feet. He had just made himself defenseless. A self-delivered happy meal for monsters with the munchies. For a moment he imagined himself wrapped up in a giant McDonald's box, before shaking the thought off. The grim reality set in. He was not going to walk out of this one alive. Xander suddenly felt very tired.

"Right then," Xander said. "Are you going to eat me now, or do you have other plans for me? Perhaps you have a sacrifice in mind, or a special ritual to create hell on earth. It's not ritualistic torture, is it? Because I have a rather low pain tolerance, and if it's going to be torture, I'd prefer it for you to just kill me now." He leaned against the wall, tilted his head back, and closed his eyes. He braced himself for the bite. Xander flinched as a cold hand grasped his uninjured shoulder; but the anticipated pain never came. He opened his eyes to see the southern gentleman and he suddenly _felt_ reassurance and sincerity. There was something not quite right with those _feelings_ but Xander was too exhausted to fight it.

"Please," the gentleman said softly. "We mean you no harm."

"Let us help you." The blond Cordelia suggested in her honeyed voice.

"We aren't going to kill you, and we certainly aren't going to eat you." The second man added.

Xander gave in and let himself succumb to his injuries. He blacked out, the world around him spinning slowly into darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

"He hasn't called. It's been two days, why hasn't he called?" Buffy paced the library floor.

"You don't think that he's in trouble, do you?" Willow worried.

"There are some strange myths, about Washington State." Giles said. "It's possible that he ran into one or two of them." Buffy climbed up onto the table, to better read over Giles's shoulder. "There is a Quileute legend, claiming that their warriors were joined with the spirit of the wolf…"

A girl walked up to the Library desk, holding a book. "Umm" she said, not wanting to wait around, but not wanting to interrupt the conversation.

"Oh." Buffy quickly slid off the table. "Hi there."

"What do you want?" Giles asked.

"A book?" the girl asked.

"See, this is a school, and we have students, and they check out books, and they learn things." Buffy pointed out helpfully.

"Yes, I was beginning to suspect that was a myth." Giles replied. He checked her book out, and the girl left.

"Where were we?" Giles asked.

"You were telling us about key lute werewolves." Oz reminded him.

"Quileute shape shifters" He corrected him. "Their transformation had nothing to do with the moon. They would only become wolves, whenever a Cold One approached. The Cold Ones had skin like ice. They were vicious killers that drank blood." Oz looked fascinated.

Buffy looked at them grimly, "Survey says, Vampire."

"Well maybe he didn't run into a Vampire." Willow said nervously. "How do we know?"

"We can find out. I know of a spell, Willow." said Giles gently. "It's called scrying." They walked off, discussing magical theories.

"I'm going to train," Buffy announced.

"I'll come with you," Oz said, "My knife work is rusty."

* * *

"Hush-a-by, don't you cry, Go to sleep, little baby. When you wake you shall have all the pretty little horses…" Edward could _hear_ his wife singing little Renesme to sleep. It was something that she enjoyed doing. In the next room, he could _hear_ Esme, frantically preparing to receive a guest. Upstairs, Carlisle checked and double checked his spotless medical supplies. Also, in the distance, was a dim _voice_ that he couldn't quite _hear_. He quickly identified it as Jacob, heading home for the night. He _listened_ intently, and as soon as he could _hear_ his siblings returning, he notified his anxious parents.

"He's unconscious at the moment, so I don't know how he is feeling." Edward told Carlisle, "But according to Emmett he is badly injured. It all hangs on your skill as a doctor."

"Then we have very little to worry about." Esme smiled reassuringly. Carlisle turned to leave.

"There's one other thing," Edward said, grabbing his father's wrist, "Alice _sees_ it. In a couple of days, while you're at work…."

At first Xander thought he had been dreaming. He was laying on his right side on a soft bed, in a bright room, with its white walls and polished wooden floor. No dungeons, dark holes, or slimy damp sewer systems; no torture chambers or manacles. His back and lower side were well bandaged. An IV was stuck into his arm, feeding mysterious liquids into his veins. The heart monitor measured his pulse with a steady beep, beep, beep, and the respirator pushed oxygen into his lungs, insuring his continued survival. If he had to guess, Xander would have said that he was in a very expensive hospital. One with floor length glass windows. He hoped Giles could cover it. He let his gaze drift, admiring the patterns and shapes of the clouds. There was admittedly little daylight, but the little sunlight that managed to struggle through the cloud cover would have hurt vampires. That was a small comfort to him.

"Guess I'm still alive, then." Xander said wonderingly.

"It was a near thing." A rich, silky voice informed him. Xander's blood froze when he heard that voice. His muscles tensed, and he groped for a stake that was no longer in his pocket. Everything about that voice screamed 'vampire'. Xander's eyes found him standing in the corner, cleaning medical tools. He looked picture perfect. The handsome young doctor with the pristine white lab coat and the polished silver stethoscope. His perfect, handsome brow was furrowed as he concentrated on his work. Xander would have been fooled if he hadn't encountered vampires before. There was no hiding that pale skin or those strange eyes. They were yellow eyes instead of the usual vampiric red but that didn't necessarily signify anything.

"I'm not dead yet, so you must want me for something." Xander said cautiously, "Where am I? What do you want with me?" He hoped the Vampire was in a 'I'm going to gloat and share all my evil plans to take over the world' mood rather than a 'I'm going to rip out your throat' mood. Because he was still alive, Xander was counting on the former.

"What do I want with you?" The vampire looked rather taken aback. "I want you to lay still and get some more sleep. You have just had two major surgeries. You have five broken ribs, two of which punctured your lungs. You also have acid burns across you shoulder and back. As for where you are, I am Dr. Carlisle Cullen. You are in my home." Xander blinked, his sluggish mind trying to process the information he had just been handed. This was a vampire's home? He ran a critical eye over the room, trying to assess the cost of the medical equipment. A lot, he guessed.

For a vampire to live in a normal house, instead of some tunnel, that showed guts. A house has windows and doors; the possibility of visitors and sunlight. It would take a courageous Vampire to brave it. For a vampire to be able to afford all of this… that showed wealth. Wealth meant power and influence. Xander had been afraid before, now he was terrified.

Carlisle looked up again, and noted that Xander was still awake. He poured a glass of water and picked up a bottle of pills.

"Would you like a sedative?" He asked the boy. "It would help you fall asleep."

"No," Xander replied, wondering if he had any real choice in the matter. Would the strange doctor just inject him with something anyway?

"Ah, you still don't trust me." Carlisle sighed.

"You can't keep me here." Xander told him.

"As your doctor, I cannot allow you to leave." Carlisle told him.

"My friends will come and find me." Xander bluffed. He wasn't entirely sure that Buffy would be able to find him.

"I know." Carlisle replied. "I'm counting on it."

"It's a trap then," Xander concluded, "And I'm the bait. Well, even if Buffy falls into it, you still won't be able to catch her. She is the Slayer and she will kill you all."

"It's not a trap." Carlisle rubbed his forehead. He had known that this human would be difficult to convince, but still. "I don't want to catch Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Carlisle set the glass, and two of the pills on the table next to Xander. They were easily within his reach. "I'm going to leave these here, in case you change your mind about sleeping."

Xander watched suspiciously, as the Vampire left the room.


	3. Chapter 3

Xander lay with his eyes closed. He didn't want them to know that he had woken up just yet. He could feel the presence of someone in the room. No doubt, the lowest dog in the pack had been set to guard the prisoner. He listened to the steady breathing for a long moment. The door swung open.

"Jacob!" A little girl squealed. A little girl? Surely he was mistaken. Why would there be a little girl here?

"Hello, there Nessie." The man said enthusiastically.

"We brought you lunch." Nessie told him. "Mamma and Grandma made it."

"There's a bit more there than even I can eat, Alice." Jacob said.

"He'll be waking up soon. You can share." Xander felt that he knew that voice. He just couldn't place it. Unable to hold back the curiosity, he opened his eyes. He was propped up in bed. Still in the hospital room, but he was no longer hooked up to the IV or the heart monitor. A young man of Native American decent sat in a chair next to Xander's bed. Human, from the way that he was devouring that sandwich. Nessie, the little girl, sat on his lap.

"Speak of the Devil." Jacob said.

"There, I told you." Alice said. She was the pixie girl, from that first night. "Am I ever wrong?" Alice smiled broadly.

"Don't ever bet against Alice," Jacob said, "It's like she can see the future." Nessie rolled her eyes. Alice set down her tray, and poured a cup of tea. Jacob helped himself to more food. Alice slapped his hand with a spoon. "Don't eat it all. Xander is hungry too." She scolded.

"You are looking much better, by the way."

Xander watched the way that they bantered back and forth. They acted like siblings, or close friends; the vampire and the human. They argued and clearly enjoyed doing so.

He doesn't know. Xander realized it in an instant. He doesn't know, and they are playing with him. He felt sickened at the thought. The young woman that had brought the food. The little girl snuggling into his arms. They had befriended him, and as soon as they tired of him, they would kill him.

"Here, you hungry?" Jacob offered a sandwich to Xander. "Not quite up to Esme's usual standards, but I suppose Carlisle doesn't want you to eat anything rich just yet."

Xander took the sandwich, and caught Jacob's arm before he could sit down again. He pulled him closer.

"Trust me." Xander whispered, "I know that this might be hard to believe, but your life is in danger. Those other people aren't human. They're vampires." Jacob threw back his head and laughed. "I'm not kidding." Xander hissed. "Run away while you have the chance."

"He's a sharp one, Alice" Jacob said, to Xander's growing horror. "He's already figured out your bloody little secret."

"Dog," Alice scoffed. "His best friend is the Slayer. Of course he knows." Jacob looked thoughtful.

"That's why Carlisle sent you and Renesme." He concluded. "Between the three of us, we have a good chance of convincing him."

"You knew?" Xander looked guarded now, "You're with them."

"They aren't too bad, for blood suckers." Jacob replied, "And if they ever get too annoying I could just tear them apart."

"Can't catch me." Nessie informed him.

"Want to bet? Let's go, here and now." Jacob looked eager, "I'd give you a slow death by tickles." Nessie giggled.

"Jacob, Not now." Alice said, trying and failing to look stern.

"Anyway, I'm sure that you have a lot of questions." Alice told Xander. There it was. An open invitation. Xander took it.

"How do you know so much about me? What do you want? Who exactly are you?" Xander gestured to the room. "And what is all of this?"

"A tall order." Jacob said thoughtfully. "Where to begin?"

"We're the Cullens." Alice said cheerfully. "As you know, we are vampires. This is Jacob Black and he is a dog."

"Wolf," Jacob protested. "I shift into a wolf."

Alice ignored him and continued. "We are a peaceful group, vegetarians if you like. We only drink the blood of animals."

"The neighbors don't like it if they start eating people." Jacob interjected.

"As if we would." Alice pouted.

Xander was feeling incredulous. They didn't really expect him to believe this, did they? Renesme reached over and touched Xander's arm. Then he _saw_ it all.

* * *

Meanwhile, 200 miles North of Sunny Dale, a minivan passed the border into Washington. There was nothing to indicate that the spot was remarkable.

* * *

"I don't understand." Xander shook his head. "I just don't understand."

"I know it's a lot to take in." Jacob said, biting his lip.

"Should we give you space and time to think?" Alice asked. Xander nodded. Jacob picked up Renesme, and the three of them left the room.

"Jacob, Let's go play dolls." Xander heard faintly.


	4. Chapter 4

"He's confused." Jasper told them. The family was gathered in the living room, except for Carlisle who was at work. "His whole world has been turned upside down. He wants to believe us, but he is hesitant."

"He has never seen anything quite like us before." Edward added. "The monsters that he is use to, they really are soulless."

"Those Sunnydale vampires are vicious, that's for sure. And all of the lesser variety." Alice added.

"Sunnydale," Jasper said thoughtfully. "The coven there is a remnant of the southern territory wars, I think. They probably still keep a newborn army."

"Four or Five newborns at a time, from what Xander gave me." Edward nodded. "They never get more than that because the Slayer keeps their numbers down."

"Four or Five newborns in one little town?" Rosalie wondered. "That place must be like the Mouth of Hell." Everyone agreed.

* * *

The Scooby gang arrived in town that morning. They checked into the hotel and immediately left to visit Xander in the hospital. They didn't find him there.

"I'm sorry," The receptionist told them. "But there is no one here by that name."

"Has anyone arrived recently, anyone that couldn't be identified?" Giles asked. "It would have been three or four days ago."

She shook her head regretfully. "We have no records of anyone like that, nor of anyone matching your description. I'm sorry. Maybe your friend is in the Port Angeles hospital?"

"Angeles?" Willow muttered, "That would be ironic." They were about to take the receptionist's advice when Oz spotted him.

"Buffy, look!" He tugged violently on her sleeve. Buffy turned and saw a doctor. He was tall, and blond. A pale young man with unusual yellow eyes.

"He's a Vampire." Oz hissed. "I can smell it on him." Buffy smiled grimly and pulled out her stake. Luckily no one noticed. For some reason, few people ever did.

"Good." Willow said. "We have some questions for him, don't we?"

"Wait." Giles whispered. "We can't do this here and now. There are too many witnesses, and too many potential hostages. We need to wait until we can corner him."

"But Giles!" Buffy protested.

"Buffy, he's stuck here until dark anyway. You know that." Giles pleaded. "He won't kill anyone. He won't dare blow his cover." The doctor looked up from his clip board, and. met Buffy's eyes briefly. Their rising voices had drawn his attention.

"Fine," Buffy agreed. "But we come back as soon as it is dark."

Carlisle walked into his office and knew that something was wrong. The lights were off. He could hear someone breathing in the dark. He flipped the light switch, and immediately felt a sharp, pointy stake at his back. He looked at the blond teenager and raised an eyebrow.

There were three other people in the room. A werewolf stood by the sink. As a rule, Carlisle didn't like werewolves, but if this one was with the slayer he must have some measure of self-control. An emo girl was by examination table. She menacingly tossed a fireball up and caught it again in her hands. A witch then. An older man with greying hair and glasses stood by his desk chair.

"Don't move," The blond growled.

"Well that's not very nice." Carlisle said.

They all tensed, as if expecting him to ignore her order and attack. The witch raised her hand high, ready to throw the fireball.

"Put your hand down, girl." Carlisle snapped at her, "If you throw that it will hit the cupboard and nothing will be left standing within a mile radius."

"Why?" She asked suspiciously, "What is in there?"

"Very flammable medical supplies." He told her. She blinked and put out the fire.

"Now perhaps we can go about this a little more civilly." Carlisle suggested, "Please, take a seat." Nobody moved. Carlisle sighed.

"Alright then, would you mind if I took a seat?" He reached for the nearest chair, one of the cushioned patient's chairs. They all flinched as he moved.

"I'll take that as a 'no'."

"Who are you?" The older man demanded, "What are you doing here?"

"I work here," he replied, raising one perfectly arched eyebrow, "My name is Dr. Carlisle Cullen." The Scoobys exchanged skeptic looks. "Take a look around if you like," He continued, "There is no hidden message in the pictures, nothing lurking under the sink. There is one skeleton in the closet but he is made of plaster, I assure you."

"I assume," Cullen said, looking pointedly at the stake, "That you are the slayer and friends. Are there any names in the offering?"

"Why should we tell you?" the werewolf snarled.

"It will make this conversation pleasanter." They shot him dark looks. "What did Edward say?" He rubbed his temple, "Buffy, Oz, Willow, and Giles, yes? What can I help you with?"

"A few days ago," Willow began, "A friend of ours went missing. We decided to scry for him."

"We saw him being carried off by Vampires, and we saw him in a hospital," the werewolf interjected.

"Naturally we were worried, so we came to look for him." The blond finished. "If you know anything…If you know where he is…."

"You must mean Xander," Dr. Cullen said. "He is at my home."

"What?" the witch asked.

"He's where?" Oz demanded at the same time.

"You will explain yourself, sir." Giles said sharply, "Why exactly is he in your 'home'."

"My daughter, Alice, received a vision," the doctor said, picking his words carefully, "Of a rouge vampire attacking a young man in Port Angelus. In the vision he then died of his wounds. The police would have found him. There would have been awkward questions. You can imagine the chaos, if the world found out about Vampires, well there are reasons that the watcher's guild doesn't publicize."

Buffy could imagine the panic, the mobs, the purges. Hundreds of vampires might be caught, yes, but thousands of innocent people would be falsely accused and killed.

"So my children went out to look for him. By the time they found him, the attack was already over. Xander was alive, but badly wounded. He needed medical attention, and we needed to keep the situation quiet. So they brought him to me. I am a doctor after all, and I maintain perfectly adequate medical equipment at my home."

"Right," Buffy said skeptically, "The 'kind' and 'gentle' Vampires rescued the 'poor helpless' human. How do we know that you weren't behind the attack in the first place?"

"And even if you weren't," Oz continued, "Why help Xander at all? Why not let him die, or even finish him off yourselves? Don't give me that crap about the police. It's not that hard to hide a body. So what do you want with him?"

"Why do I need to want anything with him?" Dr. Cullen asked. "Why can't I just wish to help my fellow creature? Look, if you don't believe me, Xander can tell you. My shift ends in three hours. You could come visit."

"And walk right into a trap," the watcher replied. "No thank you."

"It's not a trap," Cullen said wearily. "There is no reason to be suspicious. Not everyone has ulterior motives. I may be a Vampire, but that doesn't make me a monster."

"So you admit to being a Vampire then?" Buffy asked, Carlisle could feel the stake digging more sharply into the back of his ribcage, "You're an undead, blood sucking, burn up in the sunlight, Vampire?"

"Well, you have to understand that not all of the myths are true."

"But you do kill people," the werewolf insisted. Funny really, how his fellow 'monster' seemed more worked up by this point than the 'humans' were.

"Yes," he said softly, "I have killed when it became necessary. But you have done the same, have you not?"

BEEP! The loud noise made them all jump.

"That is my pager," Cullen told them, "May I answer it?"

The blond took it and tossed it to the watcher. "Code Black, four in the ER." Giles read aloud, "What does that mean?"

Before they could blink, Dr. Cullen had sidestepped Buffy and was out the door. They raced after him, determined to not let him escape. Not only was Cullen a vampire, he was their only lead on finding Xander.

They caught up to him in the Emergency Operation Room and stopped, eyes wide with horror. There were no less than four bloody patients, victims of a car crash. Two nurses, a plump woman and a young man, ran back and forth. They stopped the bleeding, stabilized and braced necks, and hooked patients up to IVs and monitors. Meanwhile, Cullen was doing emergency surgery on a man's abdomen. A little girl's heart stopped beating.

"Doctor," the plump nurse cried.

"Use the defibrillator," he snapped, "sixty joules."

The young man set it up in a matter of seconds. "Clear?"

"Clear." He pressed the pads to her chest, giving her a shock. The Scoobys watched with bated breath.

"Clear?"

"Clear." For a second time, the pads came down. The little girl's back arched, but she did not start breathing. "Nothing." The young man almost shouted.

"One more, and then start CPR." Cullen growled. All the while, his hands moved nimbly, checking for internal bleeding, and sewing stitches.

"Clear?"

"Clear." For the third time, the pads came down and the little girl gasped. Her heart started again.

A young man started convulsing, and Dr. Cullen was at his side in an instant. He plunged the syringe into the man's chest and ordered the nurse to bring a bag of O negative, stat.

Half an hour in, a grim faced doctor, and three more nurses rushed into the room, pulling on lab coats and surgical masks as they came. Even with the extra help, the battle for the patients' lives went well past the three hours that should have ended his shift.

When the victims were finally stable, Cullen stripped off his gloves and mask. He turned and noticed the Scoobys for the first time. They were watching him with wide eyes.

"What are you doing here?" the plump nurse asked. She had also just noticed them, "This is the ER. You aren't even wearing scrubs for goodness sake. You've contaminated the operation room!" She looked pointedly at their shoes, which were tracking mud.

"Well, you see mam," Giles started, "We were just…" Suddenly the nurse looked cautious. Her hand reached for the pager at her belt.

"You don't even work here." That was the anxious young nurse that had used the defibrillator. "How did you get in?"

"It's alright, Marcy." Dr. Cullen was suddenly there, laying a hand on the plump woman's shoulder. "They are waiting for me." He gave her a charming smile.

"But they shouldn't be waiting in here." The young nurse argued.

"Oh, well," she was flustered. "I guess it's alright then, Doctor."

"Alright!" the young nurse exclaimed, "They're in street clothes. God knows what they've tracked in."

"Isn't John waiting for you?" Cullen asked Marcy, completely ignoring the young nurse's outburst.

"Right, of course. Come along, Rory. We have work to do." She hustled off. Rory looked bemused for a moment. He shook his head, and followed. As he walked away, Buffy heard him mutter something about hoping that Doctor Ann Amy would get back soon.

"I can be very persuasive sometimes," Carlisle said, by way of explanation, "Doesn't ever work on Rory for some reason. Oh well."

"You were saving lives," Buffy said wonderingly, "You just saved four _human_ lives."

"I am a doctor," Carlisle pointed out.

"Isn't it difficult?" Oz asked, "Being around all the," he gulped, "all the blood?"

"It was at first," Cullen admitted, "It was a struggle that took every bit of my self-control. But over time I became use to it. I learned to ignore the temptation."

"Why would you do it?" Willow asked.

"Because I can help," He replied, "God gives us talents. It is up to us to use them for the benefit of all."

"You weren't cursed with a soul, by any chance, were you?" Giles asked.

"Cursed with a soul?" Dr. Cullen looked confused, "I certainly like to think that my immortal soul remains intact, though I can't imagine why that would be a curse."

"Definitely still has his soul then," Buffy said, and they all relaxed.

"Look," Dr. Cullen said, sounding slightly annoyed, "I don't know what a soul looks like, so I couldn't tell you whether someone has one or not, but Vampires don't drink human blood because they are 'soul less.' It's a craving. Like drugs, it pulls you in, making you want more and more. Vampires are like NAS babies, born needy. That doesn't make us 'soul less,' it just makes us addicted."

"I can see that we have much to discuss,"


End file.
